AlanBarber.Org
Twitter Updates
Rocking out in cubicle land... http://t.co/trOKKOy5
Thu May 17, 2012 12:34 PM
New project to play with for the day. Writing a VS2010 plugin that runs on every build... this should be fun!
Thu May 17, 2012 11:48 AM
Today is *facepalm* day... Dev DB was rolled back without telling any developers. ugg!
Thu May 17, 2012 9:13 AM
Started watching Breaking Bad the other day. Little slow at first but it gets really good. Bryan Cranston turns into one serious badass :)
Wed May 16, 2012 8:52 PM
Sunday, January 18, 2004
Create and Use Windows XP Password Reset Disk
Here's how to create and use a password reset disk for windows XP. The password reset disk allows you to give your Windows XP account a new password should you forget your current password and not be able to log in.
This is an obvious security risk as anyone that gets a hold of this disk can get into your account. Please be very careful and hide the disk someplace where no one would think to find it.
Create a password reset disk
Click Start
Click Control Panel
Click User Accounts
Click on the account which you want to create a password disk
Click Prevent a forgotten password which starts the Forgotten Password Wizard.
(You can find this under the Related Tasks on the top left hand side)
Insert a blank, formatted disk into drive A, and click Next
Enter the password in the Current user account password box
Save the disk someplace safe
Use the reset disk
At the Welcome screen:
Click the user name whose password is on the reset disk
Click the question mark button
This causes the Did you forget your password message to appear.
Click use your password reset disk
This will start the Password Reset Wizard.
From this point, just follow the wizard's instructions to create a new password for you to use.
Saturday, January 17, 2004
BSD for Linux users
Caught a link to an interesting article over at the BSDForums.
It's called BSD for Linux users and it's by is Matt Fuller.
The article covers an array of topics including; The history of BSD, BSD core/base, ports tree, differences in release procedures for BSD and Linux, upgrading differences, philosophical differences, and clears up common myths. I'll admit it is a bit bias but Mr. Fuller tries hard to keep it balanced. Still, it's a very good read not just for all the Linux users out there but anyone interested in BSD.
I know I'm always talking about BSD and some people probably get sick of it but tough cookies. You hear about Linux day in and day out in the media. BSD barely ever gets mentioned and if it does it's always a short blurb like "oh yea there's BSD too..." A little advocacy never hurt anyone so that's what I'm doing.
So grab the link and when you have some free time check it out.
It's called BSD for Linux users and it's by is Matt Fuller.
The article covers an array of topics including; The history of BSD, BSD core/base, ports tree, differences in release procedures for BSD and Linux, upgrading differences, philosophical differences, and clears up common myths. I'll admit it is a bit bias but Mr. Fuller tries hard to keep it balanced. Still, it's a very good read not just for all the Linux users out there but anyone interested in BSD.
I know I'm always talking about BSD and some people probably get sick of it but tough cookies. You hear about Linux day in and day out in the media. BSD barely ever gets mentioned and if it does it's always a short blurb like "oh yea there's BSD too..." A little advocacy never hurt anyone so that's what I'm doing.
So grab the link and when you have some free time check it out.
Posted by AlanBarber
on 01/17/2004 at 12:26 AM
Computers & Technology •
BSD / Linux •
(0) Comments •
Permalink
Computers & Technology •
BSD / Linux •
(0) Comments •
Permalink Friday, January 16, 2004
Can I bum $1200 off you?
Lacie, makers of external storage devices, has just taken the cake for outrageous and amazing storage devices.
They recently announced their newest product called fittingly, Bigger Disk. It's an external hard drive you plug into your computer via Firewire or USB. Of course that's nothing special as there are plenty of companies selling these.
Lacie takes it to the next step by having 1 Terabyte of storage in the box! That's 1 Terabyte, 1,000 Gigabytes, or 1,000,000 Megabytes. To understand the amount of storage you could have let me give a few examples:
- 500,000 Pictures From a 3.2mp digital camera (That's 24 pictures a day for the next 50 years)
- 250,000 MP3s (That's almost 2 years of non-stop music)
- 1,500 CD-Rom Images (Use a virtual CD program and never touch a disc again)
- 100 DVD Movies (Make you entire collection available at a fingers touch)
You get all that in something smaller than a shoebox!
I'd love to get my hands on this thing. Plug it into a small form factor computer from Shuttle and install the network version of Virtual CD on all my computers. I'd never have to touch spinning media again. Every one of my applications, games and even music CDs would be centrally stored and easy to access. It's a geeks dream really
$1200 for the Lacie Big Disk
$500-600 for a SFF box
$75 for 5 user private license of Virtual CD Network Edition
That's not too bad of a price for the ultimate File Server. Of course moving that much data around over a network would mean I'd have to dump my 802.11b wireless for a gigabit wired network. So that'd start to add up a bit more to the overall cost. Good Intel Gigabit network cards cost around $100.00 and a 8 port gigabit switch(fancy hub) will run you $150.00 to $200.00. Still well worth it though!
They recently announced their newest product called fittingly, Bigger Disk. It's an external hard drive you plug into your computer via Firewire or USB. Of course that's nothing special as there are plenty of companies selling these.
Lacie takes it to the next step by having 1 Terabyte of storage in the box! That's 1 Terabyte, 1,000 Gigabytes, or 1,000,000 Megabytes. To understand the amount of storage you could have let me give a few examples:
- 500,000 Pictures From a 3.2mp digital camera (That's 24 pictures a day for the next 50 years)
- 250,000 MP3s (That's almost 2 years of non-stop music)
- 1,500 CD-Rom Images (Use a virtual CD program and never touch a disc again)
- 100 DVD Movies (Make you entire collection available at a fingers touch)
You get all that in something smaller than a shoebox!
I'd love to get my hands on this thing. Plug it into a small form factor computer from Shuttle and install the network version of Virtual CD on all my computers. I'd never have to touch spinning media again. Every one of my applications, games and even music CDs would be centrally stored and easy to access. It's a geeks dream really
$1200 for the Lacie Big Disk
$500-600 for a SFF box
$75 for 5 user private license of Virtual CD Network Edition
That's not too bad of a price for the ultimate File Server. Of course moving that much data around over a network would mean I'd have to dump my 802.11b wireless for a gigabit wired network. So that'd start to add up a bit more to the overall cost. Good Intel Gigabit network cards cost around $100.00 and a 8 port gigabit switch(fancy hub) will run you $150.00 to $200.00. Still well worth it though!
Thursday, January 15, 2004
Happy Personal Firewall Day
Happy Personal Firewall Day.
I won't go on a long rant about it but seriously folks you need to play it safe. Computers are like cars not TVs! You have to do routine maintaince on it.
Go visit the site and read up on their suggestions. NOW!
quote:
San Francisco, CA - On January 15, 2004, America's top computer software and security organizations will mark the start of a nationwide public service effort to educate consumers on protecting their home computers. Novice computer users can learn how to find and use tools that will protect a PC connected to the Internet from hackers on the Personal Firewall Day Web site (http://www.personalfirewallday.org.) Personal Firewall Day is also a call to firewall experts to share their expertise and advice with the their friends, family, and the public. The effort is sponsored by McAfee, Microsoft, Sygate, TruSecure and Zone Labs. In addition, both the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) and the SANS Institute, a leading security information and training organization, have endorsed Personal Firewall Day.
I won't go on a long rant about it but seriously folks you need to play it safe. Computers are like cars not TVs! You have to do routine maintaince on it.
Go visit the site and read up on their suggestions. NOW!
Tuesday, January 13, 2004
My So-Called Blog
While I was getting ready for class this morning I had the tv on watching the morning news. Just happened to flip over to NBC and caught probably the last quarter of an interview with Emily Nussbaum, a writer for the New York Times.
She did a story on Teens and weblogs called "My So-Called Blog." It's an obvious play on "My So Called Life."
It's an interesting article on Teens and how blogging has become an integral part of many of their lives. We live in a connected world; Email, Cell phones, Instant Messaging, Chat, etc. This generation of teens grew up with these mediums and have taken to integrating them into their lives.
I'm not that old but I do remember when Cell phones were huge and only rich people used them. I was around with Instant messaging was new and hip. I had an ICQ id number in the 2 million range back in the day but my current one is in the 6 million range. Last I check there are something like 70 million registered ICQ accounts. Not to mention the millions on AOL, Yahoo, and MSN. Chat used to be underground but now it's mainstream too.
Anyways, the article shows that most teens use blogs as personal diaries and cover the usual teen topics like crushes, fashion, issues with parents, etc. It goes into details of the interactions of teens on the blogs and in real life as a result of what is posted. While it's mostly about a few teens Nassbaum interviewed she does bring up some interesting questions, including a short discussion about privacy and safety.
I think Nassbaum is just misunderstanding the situation. It's not that they're giving in or accepting defeat in the loss of privacy. It's a fundamental shift in what is considered "private."
I'm sure people remember in the past how you would never call someone if it was past 7pm. It was a disruption of privacy to bother people when calling that late. As society changed the time has gotten later and later. I think now days most people consider 10pm the cutoff to make calls. Or just like making friends online that you've never met in person used to be a scary concept. I remember back when I first got online. Oh lets see, it was back around '96-'97 I believe. I was talking about friends I know online, people from all over the world like Italy and Argentina(You guys know who you are!), at a family gathering, I think it was Thanksgiving, around '99. My grandmother heard me talking and she was shocked about how open I was with these "strangers". While I was cautions and tried to keep safe the idea of me sharing my real name to people I've never meet was a scary thought to her.
That just shows that every new generation is much more open than the previous. It's not that each generation gives in or admits defeat. It's that the separation of public and private is altered. Sharing life experiences online just doesn't have the danger stigma attached to it for this generation.
To end this I'll give an example of how blogging compares to real life. Think of the classic city home of the 1950's. The 1 acre lot, short driveway to garage, and mailbox at the edge of the driveway. For past generations privacy started at the road. The public connection to the world was the mailbox. Only invited friends and family would park in the driveway and enter. When you played with friends you went to a park or to a wooded lot. You didn't go over to a friends house. That's how you interacted. Similarly, past generations want full online privacy and see the email inbox as the public connection. That's as close as anyone should be to you online.
With my generation thing began to change. Going over to a friends house to play in the driveway or yard was normal but you usually didn't play inside the house of a friends unless you were there for a sleepover or specifically invited in. The privacy boundary changed to the house. Instant messaging is like playing in the yard or driveway.
For the current generation things have shifted again. Kids just nock on the door and walk in to play video games or watch tv/movies all the time. It's no longer a special occasion to be in the house. There are unspoken rules about when you can come and where you are allowed to be inside. This has much to do with the way kids play but it's also just an change in privacy. Weblogs or Blogs are like this. Visitors show up and are let inside. The rules are the bloggers limits on what they talk about. Some people let visitors roam around the house freely while over limit access to public areas like living rooms or basements. So some bloggers only share small amounts of privacy and keep visitors to the family rooms while other expose deep dark secrets and let visitors have roam of the house.
It's a nice way to think about things isn't it.
She did a story on Teens and weblogs called "My So-Called Blog." It's an obvious play on "My So Called Life."
It's an interesting article on Teens and how blogging has become an integral part of many of their lives. We live in a connected world; Email, Cell phones, Instant Messaging, Chat, etc. This generation of teens grew up with these mediums and have taken to integrating them into their lives.
I'm not that old but I do remember when Cell phones were huge and only rich people used them. I was around with Instant messaging was new and hip. I had an ICQ id number in the 2 million range back in the day but my current one is in the 6 million range. Last I check there are something like 70 million registered ICQ accounts. Not to mention the millions on AOL, Yahoo, and MSN. Chat used to be underground but now it's mainstream too.
Anyways, the article shows that most teens use blogs as personal diaries and cover the usual teen topics like crushes, fashion, issues with parents, etc. It goes into details of the interactions of teens on the blogs and in real life as a result of what is posted. While it's mostly about a few teens Nassbaum interviewed she does bring up some interesting questions, including a short discussion about privacy and safety.
quote:
For many in the generation that has grown up online, the solution is not to fight this technological loss of privacy, but to give in and embrace it: to stop worrying and learn to love the Web.
I think Nassbaum is just misunderstanding the situation. It's not that they're giving in or accepting defeat in the loss of privacy. It's a fundamental shift in what is considered "private."
I'm sure people remember in the past how you would never call someone if it was past 7pm. It was a disruption of privacy to bother people when calling that late. As society changed the time has gotten later and later. I think now days most people consider 10pm the cutoff to make calls. Or just like making friends online that you've never met in person used to be a scary concept. I remember back when I first got online. Oh lets see, it was back around '96-'97 I believe. I was talking about friends I know online, people from all over the world like Italy and Argentina(You guys know who you are!), at a family gathering, I think it was Thanksgiving, around '99. My grandmother heard me talking and she was shocked about how open I was with these "strangers". While I was cautions and tried to keep safe the idea of me sharing my real name to people I've never meet was a scary thought to her.
That just shows that every new generation is much more open than the previous. It's not that each generation gives in or admits defeat. It's that the separation of public and private is altered. Sharing life experiences online just doesn't have the danger stigma attached to it for this generation.
To end this I'll give an example of how blogging compares to real life. Think of the classic city home of the 1950's. The 1 acre lot, short driveway to garage, and mailbox at the edge of the driveway. For past generations privacy started at the road. The public connection to the world was the mailbox. Only invited friends and family would park in the driveway and enter. When you played with friends you went to a park or to a wooded lot. You didn't go over to a friends house. That's how you interacted. Similarly, past generations want full online privacy and see the email inbox as the public connection. That's as close as anyone should be to you online.
With my generation thing began to change. Going over to a friends house to play in the driveway or yard was normal but you usually didn't play inside the house of a friends unless you were there for a sleepover or specifically invited in. The privacy boundary changed to the house. Instant messaging is like playing in the yard or driveway.
For the current generation things have shifted again. Kids just nock on the door and walk in to play video games or watch tv/movies all the time. It's no longer a special occasion to be in the house. There are unspoken rules about when you can come and where you are allowed to be inside. This has much to do with the way kids play but it's also just an change in privacy. Weblogs or Blogs are like this. Visitors show up and are let inside. The rules are the bloggers limits on what they talk about. Some people let visitors roam around the house freely while over limit access to public areas like living rooms or basements. So some bloggers only share small amounts of privacy and keep visitors to the family rooms while other expose deep dark secrets and let visitors have roam of the house.
It's a nice way to think about things isn't it.
Sunday, January 11, 2004
Distro Wars - The Card Game
Just thought I'd share this funny card game, Distro Wars, that was posted today at UserFriendly.
I see people debate all the time which *nix distribution is best so I just found the game rather humorous.
Personally, I'm a BSD fan. FreeBSD in particular just has certain aspects to it that makes it stick out as a good unix to choose. I guess it's just the way my brain is wired when I'm using FreeBSD things just make sense to me. The system is organized logically, the ports tree is amazing, and the users and developers show a level of professionalism that you rarely see in open source communities.
More than anything the history of the OS is was first drew me in. FreeBSD, the free BSD based os for Intel hardware, has been around since 1993. BSD which FreeBSD is based on has been around since 1978. Then again BSD was built from the Original AT&T Unix OS that was created way back in 1969. Now that's some serious history!
Anyways, today is my last day of vacation. It's back to college tomorrow for my last semester, hopefully. I have to meet with a advisor to review my transcripts and make sure I meet all the requirements. I've looked over the requirements myself and I'm fairly certain everything is in order. I can't wait to graduate and join the "real" world.
I see people debate all the time which *nix distribution is best so I just found the game rather humorous.
Personally, I'm a BSD fan. FreeBSD in particular just has certain aspects to it that makes it stick out as a good unix to choose. I guess it's just the way my brain is wired when I'm using FreeBSD things just make sense to me. The system is organized logically, the ports tree is amazing, and the users and developers show a level of professionalism that you rarely see in open source communities.
More than anything the history of the OS is was first drew me in. FreeBSD, the free BSD based os for Intel hardware, has been around since 1993. BSD which FreeBSD is based on has been around since 1978. Then again BSD was built from the Original AT&T Unix OS that was created way back in 1969. Now that's some serious history!
Anyways, today is my last day of vacation. It's back to college tomorrow for my last semester, hopefully. I have to meet with a advisor to review my transcripts and make sure I meet all the requirements. I've looked over the requirements myself and I'm fairly certain everything is in order. I can't wait to graduate and join the "real" world.